Reel-off and tension-regulating unit for multiple winding machines and tension-preadjusting system therefor



3811- 19,61 0. HAUGWITZ v REEL-OFF AND TENSION-REGULATING UNIT FOR MULTIPLE WINDING MACHINES AND TENSION-PREADJUSTING SYSTEM THEREFOR Filed Nov. 24, 1959 United States Patent REEL-OFF AND TENSION-REGULATING UNIT FOR MULTIPLE WINDING MACHINES AND TENSION-PREADJUSTING SYSTEM THEREFOR Otto l-laugwitz, La Celle Saint Cloud, France, assignor to secrete Anonyme Geotfroy-Delore, Paris, France, a company of France Filed Nov. 24, 1959, Ser. No. 855,177

Claims priority, application France Nov. 24, 1958 4 Claims. (Cl. 24275.43)

This invention relates to means for controlling the tension of a continuous flexible element such as a strip, tape, wire or the like while it is being reeled off a coil. The invention is more particularly directed to such tension control means when applied to multiple tape winding machines of the kind used in order to wind simultaneously a plurality of tapes of insulation material around a conductor cable, and for related purposes.

In the manufacture of cable conductors, for the purpose of placing a plurality of layers of insulation around a cable, it is customary to feed the cable in a longitudinal direction along the axis of rotation of a revolving frame upon which a plurality of coils of paper tape and/ or other insulating material in tape form are supported in positions that are angularly equispaced about the axis of rotation of the frame and the axis of cable displacement coinciding therewith. The coils each provide a store of tape and means are provided for guiding each tape from its respective coil on the frame to the surface of the continually advancing cable. As the frame revolves and the cable is drawn axially through it at a constant linear velocity, all the tapes are simultaneously laid in helical layers around the cable, the pitch of the helices being determined by the ratio of the velocity of cable feed to the angular velocity of frame rotation; machines constructed for performing the process just outlined and similar processes are herein referred to as multiple winding machines.

It is of course essential that in such a multiple winding machine the tension of each tape should remain substantially constant within a selected range throughout the process. However, when a flexible element such as a tape is being reeled off a coil at a constant linear velocity the tension will usually vary during the unreeling operation. The chief reason for this is that as the radius of the coil of tape gradually diminishes the reel tends to revolve at a faster and faster angular velocity, so that the tension on the tape decreases correspondingly.

In my prior Patent No. 2,929,573, issued March 22, 1960, there is disclosed a tension regulating device whereby the tension of a tape or other continuous flexible element can be maintained substantially uniform while the element is being reeled off a coil in spite of the gradual decrease in coil radius. In that device a brake shoe is made to act on a brake drum integral with the reel the brake shoe being supported at one end of a pivoted lever and two opposing forces are made to act on the lever to determine the pressure of application of the brake shoe against the brake drum: one force is the tension of a spring which urges the brake shoe into engagement with the drum, while the other force is the reaction from the tension of the tape itself, which is made to act by way of a roller journalled on the brakeshoe-carrying lever and around which the tape is suitably trained, so as to tend to urge the brake shoe in the opposite sense, i.e. out of engagement with the drum. Thus when the tape tension tends to decrease, as owing to the gradual decrease in reel radius, the spring force correspondingly "ice predominates and increases the pressure of brake application. Thus the tape tension is effectively regulated to maintain a substantially constant value throughout the unreeling process. The constant value of tension can be adjusted by adjusting the bias of the spring.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved form of this prior tension regulator device which will be readily adaptable for use with each of the coils of tape mounted on a multiple-winding machine for regulating the tension thereof. Another object is to permit of adjusting the tension of the tapes in a multiple winding machine before the reel of tape has been mounted upon the machine without requiring any change in adjustment on the machine during the actual winding operations. A further object is to provide an improved tape reel-offand-tension-regulator unit of simple, economical and convenient construction for ready removable insertion of the individual tape coils upon a multiple winding machine and whereby tension adjustments can be performed upon this unit prior to its being mounted on the machine, so as to ensure thereafter that the winding tension will remain uniform over the entire winding process. A further object is to provide an improved tapetension controlling and adjusting station at which such preliminary adjustments can be quickly and efiiciently performed. Other objects will appear.

Throughout the specification and claims, the expression multiple-winding machine is to be understood as having the meaning hereinabove defined. Further, the express-ion reel-off tension regulator will be used to designate a regulating device of the type specified above and disclosed in the afore-said patent application, for maintaining the tension of a tape or the like substantially constant while it is being reeled off a coil of gradually diminishing radius.

The invention will now be further described in one embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a simplified view in elevation showing a tape tension adjusting station set up according to the invention.

It will be understood that the tension control and adjusting system shown is especially designed for use with a multiple tape winding machine and may be perm-anently arranged at a testing station adjacent to such a machine in order conveniently to test and preadjust each reel of tape prior to the latter being mounted on the multiple tape-winding machine. In the operation of a multiple tape winding machine, which may comprise as many as a drozen or more different reels of tapes such reels will generally be exhausted at different times, and the adjusting station here described affords an extremely practical way of pre-adjusting each reel with a minimum loss of time.

Shown at the left of the drawing is a reel-off and tension regulating unit according to the present invention and generally designated by the reference 50. This unit cornprises in combination a support 1, a reel R journalled at one end of the support, and adapted to hold a coil of tape 2 said reel including a peripheral brake drum 3 integral with it, and the support 1 further having mounted on it the components of a tension regulator device of the type disclosed in the prior patent mentioned above.

This regu ator device comprises a brake shoe 4 adapted to engage the periphery of the brake drum 3 and carried on one arm 5 of a two-armed lever pivoted at 9 on the sup- .port 1. The other arm 6 of the lever is attached to one end tape reeled off the coil is passed. The support 1 further carries another pair of rollers. One of these, the roller 10, is mounted in a fixed but adjustable position on the support to be engaged by the tape a short distance beyond the engagement with the roller 8, and another roller 11 is journalled on a side arm 12 projecting from a side of the support 1.

The assembly just described forms a complete, self-supporting unit which is adapted to be conveniently mounted on the revolving frame of a multiple tape winding machine of generally conventional type, not shown herein. When thus mounted the entire unit 50 will of course revolve bodily with the revolving frame of the machine, but the relative positions of the operative parts of the unit including the components of the reel-off tension regulator will remain unchanged and will act to maintain the tension of the tape substantially constant throughout a winding operation as the tape is reeled off the coil 2 and wound around a cable axially fed through the revolving frame of the machine at a constant linear velocity as previously described, simultaneously with the winding of other tapes concurrently reeled off-other reel-off and tension regulating units similar to the unit 50 described, and mounted at other predetermined positions upon the revolving frame of the winding machine. During such operation, the regulated tension of each tape will retain substantially the value which has been preset therefor by adjustment of the screw 26 biassing the tension spring 7, such adjustment having been effected before each unit has been mounted upon the multiple tape winding machine. Neither will the dynamic balancing of the unit as a whole be altered.

Such pre-adjustment of each tape reel-off and tensionregulating unit such as 50 is most conveniently effected at a tension testing and adjusting station of the kind shown in the drawing, and now further described.

This station may comprise any suitable stationary supporting frame, here shown merely as a vertical panel 28. This stationary frame has means thereon for removably mounting a tape reel-off and tension-regulating unit 50 of the kind above described, which mounting means may include a projecting spindle 14 over which the reel and drum assembly of the unit 50 is adapted to be swingably fitted, and an abutment 15 spaced below said spindle and adapted for engagement by a cooperating stop projecting laterally from the outer end of the support 1 of the unit when mounted on the spindle, as shown.

Pivoted on a spindle 18 projecting from the frame 28 is a two-armed lever which includes a first arm 17 having a pulley 16 journalled at its end, and another arm having a counterweight 19 attached to it. Also projecting from the center hub of this lever is an indicating pointer 20 which cooperates with a scale 21 secured on the frame 28.

Pivoted on a journal projecting from the frame 28 at the general position shown is a drive pulley 22 adapted to be rotated through a belt drive from an electric motor 23 by way of a variable speed drive 24 the motor and variable drive being mounted at the base of the frame 28.

In using this system to pre-adjust a reel-off and tension regulating unit of the kind described above, such unit 50 is mounted upon the spindle 14 of the system in a manner generally similar to that in which it is to be subsequently mounted upon a spindle of the revolving frame of the multiple tape winding machine, and with the end abutment 30 of the support 1 in a position to engage the abutment 15 on the frame. The tape 13 from the coil 2 is then trained around the rollers 8, 10 and 11 in the manner shown, then around the pulley 16 of the tension indicator device, and around the drive pulley 22. A conventional arrangement including a small endless loop 22a trained around three rollers journalled on the frame 28 is provided for improving the adhesion between tape 13 and drive pulley 22.

With the drive motor 23 in operation, the tape 13 is reeled off the coil 2 by application of a pulling force to the tape through pulley 22, and at a velocity adjusted through variator 24 so as to reproduce substantially the pulling velocity that will be applied to the tape on the multiple winding machine during the actual winding process that will follow. The support 1 tends to swing counterclockwise about the pivot 14 until stops 30 and 15 abut.

The reel-off tension regulator device mounted on support 1 then acts to maintain the tension of the tape substantially constant in a manner similar to that described in the prior patent. Briefly, in such operation, the braking force applied to drum 3 by shoe 4 is a resultant between two oppositely acting forces: the force of tension spring 7 tending to pivot the two-armed lever 5--6 clockwise about its pivot 9 to apply the brake shoe against the drum, and the force exerted by tape 13 on roller 8 as a reaction to tape tension, which latter force tends to pivot the lever 5-6 counterclockwise to relieve the braking action of the shoe on the drum. As the winding operation proceeds and the radius of the coil 2 gradually diminishes, the tension on tape 13 tends to decrease accordingly allowing the action of spring 7 to predominate and increase the braking action of shoe 4 on drum 3, whereupon the tape tension again tends to increase. In this way the tension of tape 13 is regulated and can be held constant within satisfactorily narrow limits.

The tension on tape 13 simultaneously acts on pulley 16 to tend to rotate the two-armed lever 17 counterclockwise, i.e. in opposition to the couple exerted by counterweight 19, so that the pointer 20 assumes an equilibrium position in which it indicates the value of the tape tension relatively to the calibrations on scale 21.

Thus, in pre-adjusting the reel-01f and tension regulator unit 50 while mounted on the frame of the tension adjusting system as shown in the drawing, it is simply necessary to adjust the spring bias adjusting screw 26 until a desired reading is observed upon the tension scale 21. The motor 23 may then be stopped, and the reel-off and tension regulator unit 50 removed from the system, and mounted upon the multiple tape winding machine, whereupon the preadjusted tape tension will be faithfully maintained throughout the period of use of the coil 2.

It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in the specific embodiment described, both in respect to the construction of the tape reel-off and tension regulator unit and to that of the tension adjusting and control system or station illustrated, without departing from the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. For use in a multiple winding machine, a reel-off and tension regulating unit comprising in combination a support, a reel journalled on said support adjacent one end thereof and holding a flexible tape-like element coiled thereon, said support including a portion extending radially beyond said reel, a reel-off tension regulator device mounted on said portion of the support in cooperating relation with said reel for maintaining the tension of said flexible element constant during rotation of the reel, said device including manually settable tension adjusting means projecting from a side of said support portion, means for removably mounting said support upon a spindle with said reel coaxial with such spindle, and a lateral abutment on the end of said unit remote from said one end and defining a stop surface facing in the same direction as the normal rotation of the reel in unreeling said element therefrom.

2. A system for pro-adjusting the tension setting in a reel-off and tension regulating unit having a reel and a tape element wound thereon, said system comprising in combination a frame, a spindle projecting from said frame for removably mounting of said unit thereon, a drive pulley journalled on said frame and engageable by the tape element issuing from said unit, motor means for rotating said drive pulley including means for varying the speed of rotation of said pulley, and tension-measuring means on said frame including means engageable by the tape element at a point intermediate said unit and said drive pulley and movable in response to variations in tension of the tape element.

3. A system for pre-adjusting the tension setting in a reel-off and tension regulating unit having a reel and a tape element wound thereon, said system comprising in combination a frame, a spindle projecting from said frame for removably and swingingly mounting said unit thereon whereby said unit will tend to be swung in the same direction as the rotation of said reel during unreeling of said tape element therefrom, a lateral abutment on said frame defining a surface adapted to be abuttingly engaged by a cooperating abutment on said unit to oppose said swinging tendency, a drive pulley journalled on said frame and engageable by said tape element issuing from thereel, motor means for rotating said pulley in a direction to unreel said tape element from the reel, means controlling the rate of drive pulley rotation, and tension-measuring means on said frame including means engageable by said tape element at a point intermediate said unit and said drive pulley and movable in response to variations in the tension of said tape element.

4. The system claimed in claim 3 wherein said tensionmeasuring means comprises a two-armed lever pivoted on said frame, a pulley journalled on one arm of said lever and constituting said means engageable by the tape element, a counterweight on the other arm of said lever, the arrangement being such that the tape tension applied to said pulley tends to rotate the lever in one direction and the pull of gravity applied to the counterweight tends to rotate the pulley in the opposite direction, and indicator means operated by the lever for indicating the angular position assumed thereby relatively to the frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,382 288 Isnow June 21, 1921 1,409,505 Wheildon Mar. 14, 1922 1,875,111 Nieman Aug. 30, 1932 2,929,573 Haugwitz Mar. 22, 1960 

